My First (and Second Worst) 4-H Meeting

Ypke and I are kind of involved with 4-H. We go to the occasional ride meet, and I go to all the information meetings. I had just switched groups and was rather excited to show off my dear Ypke. Without further ado, let's throw it way back to July 2012.

Story time!

It was a blazing hot July afternoon and I was off to the riding practice. Ypke loaded within two minutes (score!) and we were off to the arena. We arrived 45 minutes early, so there was plenty of time to warm up and get used to the facility (double score!).

Ypke draws attention wherever we go, something that my not-so-humble-never-fallen-off (at that time) self loved. Around that time frame, I thought that we were all that, and I was excited to show off our mad dressage skills. I'm sure we were a sight for sore eyes: muddy boots, tank top, hair down, ill fitting helmet, mediocre equitation, out of control pony, and squeaky Wintec... Good ol' Wintec, you were such a trusty saddle despite your voice!

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

We were racing around the arena at an uncontrolled extended trot. The pony's head was sky high, and I was on the incorrect diagonal, trying with all I could to slow her down. After several laps around the arena and jumping out of the ring a few times, we finally managed to halt. Immediately when I halted, she began to paw. How cute, I thought.

After she quit pawing, I rode her over to the roundpen where there was a lunging tutorial going on. I was so busy watching that I didn't even notice Ypke was pawing again until it was too late. As I finally noticed she was pawing and dismounted, a strange "not quite right" feeling settled in my gut. Right when I dismounted, she dragged me about 15 feet away to an extra deep, sandy area.

Down she went. Straight onto the arena sand. Straight on top of her tack. She was rolling. I was flat out mortified as I watched, trying to get her up to no avail. My cheeks were burning red with both anger and embarrassment after a man standing nearby began to snicker and insult us.  I was now beyond mortified.

rollin' n' hatin'

She got up and shook herself off, enveloping anyone within a 5 mile radius in a dust cloud. Luckily, the tack was perfectly fine!  I miss that trusty Wintec, it went through heck and back that day and wasn't even scratched. That is the major pro of synthetic tack — it takes a lot to ruin it!

I got back on and we were off; trotting madly around the dressage arena once again. There was one spook in which I almost fell off, but other than that the meet went well. During showmanship she rolled three times though.  Everyone thought she was colicing, but she was just enjoying the hot sand on a blazing hot day.

Moral of the story: If your horse begins to paw on a hot day... or while they are in water... keep them moving forward!  Lesson learned.